This game has clearly developed an obsession with selling tokens for real money because there is no way that a developer that actually tries to make a fun game thinks it's fun to make it so that crafters have to go back and forth between major cities to get mats from AH vs mats from vendors.
The proof it's a broken system with ulterior motives is that it's not even fair or balanced; if you happened to have had gold in ANOTHER EXPANSION you'd have a mobile AH cheaper; or if you had a lot of mommy's money to pay for it you'd still have an advantage with it.